With all the seeded players, except Kvitova, falling like flies at the 2014 Connecticut Open, the No. 4 player in the world continued her dominating run at the Connecticut Tennis Center, routing No. 25 Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-1 in just 73 minutes.

It marked the 11th win in the last 12 matches in New Haven for the 24-year old Czech, who won here in 2012 and lost in the championship match to Halep last year.

"It's tough to describe, but I always seem to play quite well here and I'm glad to be in the finals again," Kvitova said. "I'm happy with how I played. I wasn't playing well the tournaments before here (Cincinnati and Montreal) so I'm glad to be finding my form."

Since a first-round loss in 2010 (she skipped the 2011 event) Kvitova has taken the Connecticut Open by storm, just like Williams did between 1999-2002 and Wozniacki from 2008-11 when they each won four straight titles. A win Saturday against upstart Magdelena Rybarikova would give Kvitova her second title in three years.

"For me, it's pretty calm here," Kvitova said. "It's just nice to play here. The court here is faster, so for me, it's much better than Cincinnati, for example. I just like being around here. There are tournaments that, when you come to them, you always have a good memory."

A break in the fourth game against Stosur gave Kvitova a 3-1 lead, and she rode the advantage to a 6-3 opening-set win. The two-time Wimbledon champ showed her muscle by unleashing three aces in that ninth game to leave Stosur looking up at the sky in stunned disbelief.

Riding that wave of momentum, Kvitova broke Stosur in the opening game of the second set, one of three breaks of serve in the set against the Australian. Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion and winner of five WTA titles, simply had no chance on this night against Kvitova's serve-and-volley game.

"She one of those players that had the ability to play like that and do it consistently," Stosur said. "I wasn't able to put enough pressure on her to maybe make her question what was going on. When she's playing like that, she's definitely hard to play. She one of those players that can kind of do everything."

With a first-ever trip to the finals of a premier WTA Tour event awaiting the winner, both Rybarikova and Camila Giorgi battled nerves as they battled each other in their afternoon semifinal match.

Both had advanced to semifinals in the past, but in smaller WTA tournaments. The only semifinal Giorgi had ever played in was earlier this season (Katowice). She won it, but then lost in the finals. For Rybarikova, however, it was her 12th semifinal appearance overall. That proved to be the difference.

Rybarikova saved 11 break points and broke Giorgi's serve three times and gutted out a 6-2, 6-4 win that propelled her into her first premier final against Kvitova Saturday at 3 p.m. (ESPN2).

"It's amazing. I have been in finals before but never such a big one, so it's great for me and it's huge," Rybarikova said. "Especially after struggling earlier (this year). I had a lot of tough draws, I think I played all the Top 20 players, and here again (in New Haven) I had a tough draw, so I was lucky that I could beat Halep, that's a very good win for me. It's an amazing feeling."

Rybarikova, 25, had reached the finals -- and won -- in four other tournaments, Birmingham (2009), Memphis (2011) and Washington D.C. in both 2012 and 2013.

At the time, all those events were "International" level tournaments, below the "Premier" tier.

Rybarikova took control of the first set right from the opening game by breaking Giorgi, thanks to the first of seven double faults by the 22-year old Italian.

Another double fault led to a break in the fifth game, giving Rybarikova a commanding 4-1 lead. Two service holds gave her the set. A key break in the fifth game of the second set gave Rybarikova a 3-2 lead that she never let go.

"I was serving crazy today, I really was," Rybarikova said. "I think that got her nervous because she knew she had to win her serve because if she didn't, she struggled with second serve. I was focusing on every serve."